BASTAD: Rafael Nadal returned to competition for the first time since his early French Open exit on Monday teaming up with Casper Ruud for a doubles win in Bastad.

It was Nadal’s first match since the 38-year-old fell to Alexander Zverev in the opening round at Roland Garros on May 27 as he prepares for the Paris Olympics.

The Spaniard and Ruud, 25, won 6-1, 6-4 in the rain-interrupted clay-court match against second seeds Guido Andreozzi of Argentina and Miguel Reyes-Varela of Mexico.

Wild card entries Nadal and Ruud, who trained at the Rafa Nadal Academy in Mallorca, looked at home on the Swedish clay, racing through the first set with two breaks.

Play was suspended at 3-3 in the second due to rain and briefly a second time before Nadal and Ruud, saw out the match in 79 minutes.

“We played quite well for it being the first time that we played together,” said Nadal.

“And yeah, happy to be back here after almost 20 years. I have great memories of this place from 2003, 2004, 2005. I am enjoying this week and hopefully we can keep going.”

Nadal lifted the singles title in Bastad as a 19-year-old in 2005.

This month he skipped Wimbledon to focus on the Olympics which will be played at Roland Garros where he won 14 French Open titles.

In Paris, Nadal plans to compete in the singles and doubles with Carlos Alcaraz, winner of the Wimbledon tournament on Sunday.

“It was an amazing day for Spanish sport,” said Nadal of Alcaraz’s win and Spain’s Euro 2024 triumph.

“The Spanish team played an amazing Euro Cup since the first day to the last. We are very proud, all the country, about what they did. I was a very happy day yesterday too, with Carlos winning Wimbledon.”

The 22-time Grand Slam champion is also playing in the singles where he will take on Leo Borg, the 21-year-old son of the long-retired former world number one Bjorn Borg, now 68.

Ruud added: “He did well and we played good doubles and it was a lot of fun to share the court with Rafa as always.

“I’m used to it more than Rafa, being from Norway,” he said of the rain delays before joking about Nadal’s age.

“And he’s getting old so I’m not sure how the body feels when he has to stop and start all the time.”

Borg, currently ranked 467 in the world, lost his doubles match on Monday.

Published in Dawn, July 16th, 2024